Crisp Gets His Point, but May Still Lose Job

Corey Schwab stopped 24 shots and held off a Boston power play in overtime Thursday night as the Tampa Bay Lightning earned a 2-2 tie at Boston.

The tie ended the Bruins’ winning streak at five games. It also ended their six-game winning streak against the Lightning.

The tie may not have been enough to save the job of Coach Terry Crisp, the only coach in the expansion franchise’s history.

Crisp, who took over the team on April 23, 1992, is the longest-tenured coach in the NHL. But his job has been in jeopardy because of the team’s 2-6-2 start, including a five-game losing streak that turned into a six-game winless streak.

Tampa Bay chief executive officer Steve Oto, who has been critical of Crisp during the team’s poor start, was at the FleetCenter for the game. General Manager Phil Esposito was also in attendance.

Bryon Dafoe stopped 25 shots for Boston as Tampa Bay outshot an opponent for the first time this season.

Philadelphia 4, Calgary 3--John LeClair scored his ninth goal of the season with 1:53 left at Philadelphia.

The Flames, who have lost three in a row to fall to 1-7-2, got two goals from Marty McInnis.

New Jersey 2, Montreal 1--Petr Sykora scored his second goal of the game on a disputed power play with 16.9 seconds left in overtime at East Rutherford, N.J.

The goal came less than a minute after linesman Pat Dapuzzo gave the Devils their sixth power play of the game by finding six Canadien skaters on the ice, a call vigorously disputed by Montreal.

St. Louis 4, Vancouver 1--Steve Duchesne had two assists as the Blues won their sixth in a row at home.

Duchesne and Eric Lindros of Philadelphia both have an NHL-leading 12 assists. Duchesne had 28 assists all last season with Ottawa and hasn’t had more than 30 in a season since he had 62 for Quebec in 1992-93.

Ottawa 2, Florida 2--The Senators set a franchise record by playing their fifth consecutive game without a loss. The tie at Kanata, Canada, helped Ottawa (6-2-3) remain tied for first place in the Northeast Division with Boston.

Washington 3, Phoenix 3--Calle Johansson scored a power-play goal with 16:53 to play to give the Capitals, who are unbeaten in five games, the tie at Phoenix.

NHL Notes

Janet Jones, wife of New York Ranger center Wayne Gretzky, was released from a hospital after being treated for injuries caused by rinkside Plexiglas that fell on her head while she was watching her husband play against the Chicago Blackhawks Wednesday night at Madison Square Garden. She was briefly unconscious and suffered a mild concussion and a cut lip when a pane of protective glass was knocked off its moorings. Ranger defenseman Ulf Samuelsson checked the Blackhawks’ Sergei Krivokrasov into the boards, knocking the thick pane onto Jones as she sat in the front row. . . . New Jersey left wing Dave Andreychuk is still bothered by a left ankle injury suffered during last Saturday’s game against Tampa Bay and will be out indefinitely.